The Secret is a best-selling 2006 self-help book written by Rhonda Byrne, based on the earlier film of the same name. It is based on the superstitiouslaw of attraction and claims that positive thinking can create life-changing results such as increased wealth, health, and happiness. The book has sold more than 19 million copies worldwide and has been translated into 46 languages[1] but has attracted a great deal of controversy and been parodied in several TV programs.

Contents

The Secret was released in DVD format in March 2006. The tenet of the film and book is that the universe is governed by a natural "law" called the law of attraction which is said to work by attracting into a person's life the experiences, situations, events, and people that "match the frequency" of the person's thoughts and feelings. From this, the book argues that thinking positively can create life-changing results such as increased wealth, health, and happiness.

The book is very much influenced by Wallace Wattles' 1910 book The Science of Getting Rich,[2] which Byrne received from her daughter during a time of personal trauma in 2004.[3][4] Byrne read and synthesized several classic books and the words of modern-day teachers who spoke about ancient wisdom and the ways for people to attract what they desire into their lives.[citation needed] The book includes many quotes from these people.

After being featured in two episodes of The Oprah Winfrey Show, the book reached the top of the New York Times bestseller list, where it remained for 146 consecutive weeks. The book has been translated into 44 languages,[5] and has over 21 million copies in print.[6] Thanks in big part to the appearance in the Oprah TV show, the book and film have grossed $300 million in sales, according to a January 15, 2009 article by Forbes.[7]

In 2009, the film's producer, Paul Harrington released a book for teenagers called The Secret to Teen Power. Byrne has also released a calendar and several follow-up books, including The Power in August 2010 and The Magic in 2012, which both also reached number 1 on the New York Times Best Sellers List.

The Secret posits that the law of attraction is a natural law which determines the complete order of the universe and of our personal lives through the process of "like attracts like". The author claims that as we think and feel, a corresponding frequency is sent out into the universe that attracts back to us events and circumstances on that same frequency. For example, if you think angry thoughts and feel angry, it is claimed that you will attract back events and circumstances that cause you to feel more anger. Conversely, if you think and feel positively, you will attract back positive events and circumstances. Proponents of the law claim that desirable outcomes such as health, wealth, and happiness can be attracted simply by changing one's thoughts and feelings. For example, some people believe that using the Secret can cure cancer.[8]

The book begins by introducing and explaining the mechanisms of the law of attraction, then goes on to describe its historical applications and the great men and women in history who are claimed to have harnessed its power. The book describes the law as a magnetic power emitted through one's thoughts. The power of thoughts is likened to a transmission tower that sends out a frequency to the universe and then returns the same frequency in a physical or elemental form.

Next, a three-step creative process for manifesting dreams is introduced: Ask (visualize in the film), Believe, and Receive. This creative process is based on a quote from the Bible:[10] "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive". (Matthew 21:22)

"One of the most powerful uses of gratitude
can be incorporated in the Creative Process
to turbo-charge what you want"

The Secret, p. 80.

The Secret highlights gratitude and visualization as the two most powerful processes to help manifest one's desires. It asserts that being grateful both lifts your frequency higher and affirms that you believe you will receive your desire. Visualization is said to help focus the mind to send out the clearest message to the universe. Several techniques are given for the visualization process, as well as examples of people claimed to have used it successfully to manifest their dreams.

As an example, if a person wanted a new car, by thinking about the new car, having positive and thankful feelings about the car as if it were already attained and opening one's life in tangible ways for a new car to be acquired (for example, test driving the new car, or making sure no one parks in the space where the new car would arrive); the law of attraction would rearrange events to make it possible for the car to manifest in the person's life.

The following chapters describe how to use the law of attraction specifically in the areas of wealth, relationships, and health. The book provides examples and ways to use the law of attraction for each. The final chapters offer a more spiritual perspective of the law of attraction, and of how it relates to one's life and the world.

The claims made by both the book and film have been highly controversial, and have been criticized by reviewers and readers in both traditional and web-based media. The book has also been heavily criticized by former believers and practitioners, with some[who?] claiming that The Secret was conceived by the author and that the only people generating wealth and happiness from it are the author and the publishers.

Others assert The Secret offers false hope to those in true need of more conventional assistance in their lives—for example, in 2007 Barbara Ehrenreich, an author and social critic, ridiculed the book's weight control advice to "not observe" overweight people.[11] According to the Religion Dispatches, Byrne argued that natural disasters strike those "on the same frequency as the event" and implied the 2006 tsunami victims could have spared themselves.[12] In businesses using the DVD for employee training or morale-building, some reacted to it as "a gimmick" and "disturbing" like "being indoctrinated into a cult".[11]

In a harshly critical 2010 review, The New York Times states: "'The Power' and 'The Secret' are larded with references to magnets, energy and quantum mechanics. This last is a dead giveaway: whenever you hear someone appeal to impenetrable physics to explain the workings of the mind, run away - we already have disciplines called 'psychology' and 'neuroscience' to deal with those questions. Byrne’s onslaught of pseudoscientific jargon serves mostly to establish an 'illusion of knowledge,' as social scientists call our tendency to believe we understand something much better than we really do".[13]

In 2009, Ehrenreich published Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America[14] as a response to "positive thinking" books, like The Secret, that teach "if I just change my thoughts, I could have it all".[15] She worried this was delusional or even dangerous[12] because it avoided dealing with the real sources behind problems.[16] It encouraged "victim-blaming, political complacency, and a culture-wide "flight from realism" by suggesting failure is the result of not trying "hard enough" or believing "firmly enough in the inevitability of your success". Those who were "disappointed, resentful, or downcast" were 'victims' or 'losers'.[12] Ehrenreich advocated "not negative thinking or despair" but "realism, checking out what’s really there and figuring out how to change it".[15]

Historian and ethicist John G. Stackhouse, Jr. also provided historical context for "The Secret," critically locating it in the tradition of American "New Thought" and "mind over matter" philosophy and popular religion in his weblog.[17]

The book has also been criticised for its interpretations of quantum physics. Lisa Randall has stated that it is "disquieting" that Byrne claimed to have "never studied physics or science at school, and yet when (Byrne) read complex books on quantum physics (Byrne) understood them perfectly because (Byrne) wanted to understand them".[19] Mary Carmichael and Ben Radford have stated that the book has "a semblance of scientific accuracy...The problem is that neither the film nor the book has any basis in scientific reality".[20]